Air Force to brief industry 4 Oct. on initiative to build 2,000-pound rocket-propelled bunker-busting weapon
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., 24 July 2012. U.S. Air Force weapons experts will brief industry 4 Oct. 2012 on the progress and future needs of a program to develop a rocket-propelled bomb for the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter-bomber that can attack and destroy enemy bunkers, tunnel complexes, and other important deeply buried targets.
The industry briefings, which will be at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will concern progress made on the Air Force High Velocity Penetrating Weapon Flagship Capability Concept (HVPW FCC) program, as well as future needs for bunker-busting munition guidance, navigation and control; propulsion; explosives; and systems integration.
Briefing industry will members of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate (AFRL/RW), Hard and Deeply Buried Targets (HDBT) Capability Area (CA) integrated product team at Eglin Air Force Base. The meeting also will cover the Global Strike Penetrating Munition for Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) and Functional Defeat program.
The High Velocity Penetrating Weapon Flagship Capability Concept program seeks to develop technologies for a future hard-target munition in preparation for a 2014 weapon demonstration. The goal is to build a 2,000-pound weapon with solid-rocket propulsion that will give the weapon the power of a 5,000-pound gravity bomb.
Air Force experts are focusing on developing technologies for fuze and warhead survivability, anti-jam GPS, terminal seeker, angle-of-attack sensing, and propulsion.
For the program Air Force researchers are asking industry to develop guidance to provide deep penetration and munitions accuracy; explosives able to penetrate targets before exploding; propulsion to speed the weapon to its targets; and overall design of a next-generation air-launched weapon to attack hardened targets.
The Air Force has awarded HVPW FCC research contracts thus far to Lockheed Martin Corp. in Bethesda, Md.; MBDA Missile Systems in Paris; and Raytheon Co. in Waltham, Mass.
Companies interested in attending the industry briefings should send requests by e-mail to [email protected].
For questions or concerns contact contracting officer MiMi Martin by phone at 850-883-2675, by e-mail at [email protected], or by fax at 850-882-9599.
More information is online at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLERS/HDBT_Industry_Day/listing.html.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
